Half a percent

Thank you Graham H - number one of theoretically ten. Blah blah record cover, blah don't have to explain (as if you're getting away that easily) blah.

( Sex Pistols mini-album and Laibach's Slovenska Akropola )

The highlight of the day is when the BBC engineer, who has no idea who Albini is - thinking he is just our pal invited along to give a second opinion - commends the American on his technical proficiency, asking if he has ever considered a career in the recording industry.

Yes, I've just finished Luke Haines' book Bad Vibes, and very good it is too. He's just as acerbic as you'd expect from the records, although he does occasionally and grudgingly concede that a few people aren't actually as worthless as he'd believed from their work . . . and it turns out there are a number of people he likes and admires. He also manages to phrase this in ways that don't leave it being too much of a disappointment.

In other news, Beltane went percussively and is now descending into its periodic fit of navelgazing, Anna Calvi's album's very good and people are worrying too much about the lack of AV, which everyone campaigning for would by now be wanting to replace with STV anyway.

Haines claims, incidentally, that during the week before Lady Di's funeral (the time when I wrote A Certain Email) Albini gave him a present. Two presents, in fact - a copy of Candle In The Wind, and a shiny new hammer.

I should really use this thing more, but I don't really have much to say at the moment.

However, I'd like to point out this article about this record, which is a collection of covers of Cardiacs songs to raise money for Tim Smith, who a couple of years back found that a night out seeing My Bloody Valentine can be a literally heartstopping experience. It sounds quite good value to me, if you're into that sort of thing. Which I am.

How odd. The autodetect thinks I'm in Weymouth.

I'm still not updating much. However, occasionally there's a matter of real significance.

The Guardian has a full page article about Age of Chance.

And apparently some bloke got a prize. Well done. Entirely deserved, I'm sure.

After popping down all I could think of and flipping through the record collection to remind me . . .

( Which bands have I seen . . . ? )

This is partly because some other people have done it, and partly triggered by a taxi driver last night, who took a genuine interest in which concert we'd been to, liked the description of Ladytron and noted them down to search out later, and then chatted amicably about music for the rest of the trip. Most refreshing. He liked the Waifs from hearing them on the radio (me? I saw them supporting Billy Bragg in the Corn Exchange, Cambridge, about 2002).

Very good last night, he was. A very nice man, with very talented friends.

They played:

Dance me to the end of love
The future
Ain't no cure for love
Bird on the wire
Everybody knows
In my secret life
Who by fire?
Hey, that's no way to say goodbye
Anthem

Tower of song
Suzanne
Boogie street
Hallelujah
Democracy
I'm your man
A thousand kisses deep (although this was read as a poem, with little in common with the words that were used for the song. Similar versions can be read online, if you're interested)
Take this waltz

So long, Marianne
First we take Manhattan
Sisters of mercy
If it be your will (sung by Charley and Hattie Webb, two of the backing singers, with acoustic guitar and harp, and I believe a contribution by the keyboard player too)
Closing time

I should probably drone on about this at some length, but I'll restrict myself to noting that more dates have been announced for the autumn, including several more UK ones between the 5th and 22nd of November. Tickets are on sale tomorrow (Friday) at 9 am.

Afterwards, at the Halfway House, we (Nicky, AJ, and I) were wondering which was his most depressing song. Tricky, because that's not the defining characteristic it's said to be, and mostly a definite optimism (or at least defiance) in there, but . . . anyway. What do you think?

Yes, it's a picture of me baring my torch. Obviously.

Writers Bloc had readings in Biggar and Prestonpans. ( Read more... )
Stephen Pinker gave a lecture for the Uni, which had to be moved up into the McEwan Hall due to demand. ( Contains swearing. Big, clever, funny swearing. )
Obviously at the end I did what I've done many times before - tried to work out what it says around the base of the dome. "Wisdom is the principal thing, therefore get wisdom and with all thy getting get understanding: exalt her and she shall bring you to honour." Proverbs, chapter 4.

Much fun. After that I went out to Dalkeith country park for a drink with Jim the arsonist and his mates, which was also great. I found some lager in Tesco's called "Lech", which is a very funny name if you ignore it being Polish.

After that it was the Meadows Festival, which was a lot smaller than previously, but then it did have its legs cut out from under it in the meantime. This was the first one for two or three years, and pretty good for effectively a new first time. Hopefully it'll gather momentum again over the next few years. There was a genuine 9/11 conspiracy theory stall, which I didn't stop and ridicule in spite of the fact that I probably could get back in touch with a structural engineer who studied the collapse of the towers in detail - something that, famously, said wackos have never paid any attention to.

Yesterday I went to see Mark Stewart and the Maffia. ( Read more... )
I've been reading my new (i.e. the older) copy of My Friend Mr Leakey today, which has been fun. I've noticed one thing, though - where the Seventies printing mentions Negroes as the victims of a particular kind of African devil, the older one uses a different word. It still starts with N, though. Pinker had mentioned it as currently the most taboo word in US English. I guess that in Britain it was still OK to use it in front of children as recently as 1948.

On getting back from the gig (OK, and from the pub afterwards) last night, I found a mail from a ticket agency with a whole list of stuff I've no interest in and details of Amanda Palmer playing at the end of September. Well and good, although I notice that Dolls gigs do apparently still happen very occasionally . . .

However, that wasn't the eyeopener. Other Dolls are afoot. New York Dolls, in Glasgow, anyone? In a venue the size of (and probably, admittedly, with the aroma of) a gorilla's armpit? That sounds like a good deal to me. And a couple of weeks later, Swervedriver.

Swervedriver?

Now that's not a name I thought I'd hear again. Still, tempting . . . I wonder if Dave Hetherington knows about this? I may have to pass a message via CJ.

Mixed week in politics, of course, SCOTUS have belted Bush one in the bollocks over Guantanamo. Your friend and mine Antonin Scalia, however, seems by all accounts to have delivered a shameless dissenting statementlamenting the effects of the actual decision, which would fly exactly in the face of everything he said about the grounds for his beliefs when he spoke in New College last year. Ah well. Maybe he's been misquoted.

Over here, a certain disastrous vote went the wrong way (but was tantalisingly close) and a Tory MP has resigned to fight his own safe seat at a point when the government's in trouble. His party leader, one David Cameron, described the move as "courageous", presumably meaning by Sir Humphrey's definition of the term. The words "nothing much to be gained" come to mind - he's likely to find that his only serious opposition comes from the Sun. If it descends into a farce and he ends up making himself and his party look ridiculous, he will undoubtedly go down in history as a political genius for finding a way to make the government look good in spite of its recent misadventures.

And if you think that sounds harsh, listen to what some other people are saying - one shadow cabinet member said. "There is a slight hint of self-indulgence and a slight element of tragedy. David cannot come back in a bigger position. He can only come back as even more self-righteous, but will he be more morally pure with a majority of 1,500 over the Monster Raving Loony Party? He has walked the plank and this risks looking like a pantomime."

I must finally mention that Weegie popsters The Hussy's are playing FOR FREE at the usually-execrable-but-I'll-make-an-exception-this-time 3 Sisters (on the Cowgate, if you've had the good fortune not to have come across it) on Sunday. Actually, they're playing in Manchester, at the Dry Bar, on Tuesday and in London Village (Purple Turtle, apparently) on Wednesday, so some of you could do a lot worse than pop along. Sadly, I've no indication that the other gigs are free, but I'm sure you can, as the saying goes, check local press for details.

Almost everything you ever needed to know about My Bloody Valentine:

The flute is not an instrument one usually associates with extreme noise terror, but, when My Bloody Valentine unleashed the show's crescendo, a track called 'You Made Me Realise', the instrument added an almost unbearable shrillness to what was already a blizzard of sustained sonic overload. As the tour progressed, the song became a thing of ever more terrifying beauty due to an extended white noise section that could last up to 10 minutes and was built around the repetition of a single chord played by Shields and his then girlfriend, second guitarist, Bilinda Butcher. Both had already suffered for their art, Butcher with a perforated eardrum, and Shields with the onset of tinnitus. Now, it was the audience's turn.

A Place To Bury Strangers are in Glasgow tomorrow. I have to buy earplugs. Anyone else fancy?

Also from the Absurder, "Since Dr No was released in 1962, James Bond has killed more than 150 men and slept with 44 women, three quarters of whom have tried to kill him."

That certainly puts my problems in perspective.

Yesterday's start-of-summer drink was cold and overcast, but it's good today and the ash trees at the bottom of the road are starting to come into leaf. I notice Luke Mitchell's appeal failed, too, which didn't really surprise me. There wasn't any good lab evidence, but that in itself isn't fatal - courts worked for centuries without it, and the jury didn't take long to convict. I hope they got it right, though. I'm glad it wasn't a decision I had to help with. William Beggs had an appeal mounted too, but I haven't heard what happened there.

Londoners may be pleased to know that the ongoing Telectroscope project is nearing readiness: "If you should happen to be in the vicinity of City Hall in London or the Fulton Ferry Landing in New York next Tuesday or Wednesday, you may see something strange going on. And on Thursday, 22 May, a Telectroscope will be installed at each end of the tunnel, and will open to the public for the first time." More information here.

And there's a new ballboy album soon too. Life is good.

I hadn't realised Carter were playing again. Two gigs, as before, but London and Birmingham this time. And almost sold out already.

In other news, one of my favourite ex-accountants is on tour, with friends:

24-6-08 - Asbury Park, NJ- Asbury Lanes
26-6-08 - Washington, DC - 9:30 Club
27-6-08 - Philadelphia, PA - Electric Factory
04-7-08 - Glasgow, UK - ABC1
05-7-08 - Manchester, UK - Academy 2
06-7-08 - Wolverhampton, UK - Wulfrun Hall
26-7-08 - London, UK - Kentish Town Forum
29-7-08 - New York City - Webster Hall

Yes, it's Butthole Surfers, which means I have to phone Glen.

Back in the day, the cool indie kids were into the Pastels and lots of Bearsden bands (and Sonic Youth, but they were right on that score so I'll ignore it). Liking the Buttholes was considered prima facie evidence that there was something wrong with you. Somewhere along the way it's become, if not acceptable, at least forgivable. They have become elder statesmen of acid-crazed brain-damaged swamp-rock, and are widely regarded with a certain affection in the press, although I'm sure this stops short of actually buying their records.

I knew they were playing London, but Glasgow's even better.

New Biscuit LP. 28th April. From an apparently reliable source.